Work related: We’ll be releasing a new 2-CD set on Tuesday and will post the artwork, description and audio samples tomorrow eve. For super fans of this composer and this music in particular, the event marks an end to almost three decades of dogged pursuit to finally make this one a reality. It’s no secret the score ranks in my all-time favorites. Yes, it’s part of a famous franchise. Yes, we’re deeply involved in the other soundtracks to this franchise, but now more than ever. Those not so bonkers over this score, or those not in need of every single bit of it, will probably find this one to be the proverbial overkill. But you can safely say I sweated a lot of blood to corral it all in. In our orbit around here it was often called my wacky mission in life. It wasn’t quite that but whatever. Sharing the fruits of the effort with everyone so interested is just the right thing to do.

Fun related: On The Waterfront meets First Blood. For no reason other than throwing a dart and seeing where it landed, I watched Norman Jewison’s 1978 movie F.I.S.T. It’s a lengthy blue collar union drama starring Sylvester Stallone in a high profile role that followed his initial Rocky success. Here he plays a Jimmy Hoffa-like character in a tale about the often violent formation of the “Federation of Inter-State Truckers”. Think the Teamsters. The movie has ups and downs. it’s strongest in the first half, depicting the struggles between labor and management and weaker in the second half, where politics and corruption take center stage.

Anyway, so I was tickled to see Stallone acting in a union tale ala On The Waterfront with co-star Rod Steiger, literally emphasizing the sort of fun similarity. (Not in quality, of course, just the subject matter.) And then, somewhere in the second half, a scene happens where Stallone plays opposite none other than local sheriff Will Teasle, from First Blood. Ok, so not the same role perhaps, but Brian Dennehy just the same, in an early role long before he put on that small-town sheriff’s uniform and confronted Rambo for the first time. Looks like they had met before after all.